The harm of drugs is really never absolutely present or not present. It is all related to how we use the drugs and therefore, harm only happens when drugs are used in a harmful manner similar to that of a car. The car is used all the time with very little harm. In my life, I have only been two accidents that weren't my fault and due to my learning about evasive maneuvering in drivers training, nobody was hurt.
However, with drugs and this includes alcohol, we don’t have using training. We go out their blindly with little idea as to what we are doing or what could happen. When we are young we drink and we do it very dangerously - this includes even after we reach legal drinking age as we don't have any instruction as to the harms of drinking. Binge drinking is very harmful to the brain but due to it being legal, it gives many individuals the illusion that any use is safe use but this simply is not true.
Many youth or young adults experience alcohol overdoses (aka poisoning) and other problems associated with substance use but as they learn how to use the drug (mid 20s), often these problems disappear unless of course, the individual has other problems as well such as trauma, lower education, poverty, and under/unemployment, then the drug use (no matter what drug is used - alcohol, tobacco, prescription meds, etc) will become abuse and then develop into addiction which likely could become chronic as they remain addicts throughout their 30s and older potentially if not able to access proper treatment which includes likely 9/10 addicts as current treatment don't work due to incorrect assumptions about addiction such as it is a moral issue rather than a brain disorder.
However, this progression of drug use to addiction is not the norm in fact, it is very not normal otherwise, 3/4 people would be drug addicts rather than 1/10. Therefore, to be really able to reduce harm of the drug abuse and addiction in society, we need to stop trying to prevent the 9/10 people who try it from trying it and instead provide support, education and “treatment” for those 1/10 people who do develop a problem.
Treatment was in quotations due to it being not really treatment for the drug addiction but rather the brain disorder that is causing the addiction in the first place and the toxic environment the individual is likely in. The people who become drug addicts are abused sexually almost 100% if not 100%. You will be hard pressed to find a chronic addict who doesn’t have a history of sexual abuse and it is often chronic and by a trusted family member or other person close to the family or authority.
To truly fight addiction, we need to help the addicts. We need to stop focusing our efforts on stopping the availability of the drug and instead regulate the availability and have medical personal professionally trained to help distribute and educate users on using substances. In addition, we then have these professionals also trained in providing proper interventions to those who are abusing the drugs. This includes all drugs including alcohol and tobacco as the harm that results from these are astronomical. I think though coffee, chocolate and tea is okay to not have medical professionals distributing it.
In addition, due to the regulated market, the 9/10 people who use drugs will be able to obtain them safely, without fear of what is in them and fear of the person who is distributing them as sadly, due to the black market, drug distribution is left up to those who are more prone to dishonesty and greed not unlike those who run corporations to get away from personal responsibility. They also will be able to obtain accurate information about the drugs so they are able to make educated decisions about their use thus reducing harm to themselves due to mistakes.
The cure for our problem with drugs in society is simple, one) regulate and two) provide proper services aimed at those who have brain disorders (including addiction). If the services were provided for these people correctly without worry about funding, it would return the investment ten fold as they would get to be human beings again rather than sick, traumatized, injured people who are in pain like no person can imagine and sadly are draining the health and legal systems. Trauma hurts us all not just those it happens to!
When we cut funding to those with mental health and addiction issues (brain disorders) we are slowly breaking down society. This is the threat to society as we know it, not the actual drugs themselves as again 9/10 people will never develop problems but those 1/10 people can make so many problems for the rest of the 9/10 people due to not having proper treatment and support, not due to the simple addiction of the drug. They hurt, why are we making them hurt more?
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